The Hindu                   23.03.2013

Corporation budget to be a balancing act

S.R. Praveen 

The annual budget of the City Corporation, which is to
be tabled on Saturday, is expected to be a balancing act between the
several project allocations to be carried over from the past year and
the new ones to be planned this year.

Deputy Mayor
P.T. Abdul Latheef has quite a task on his hands as more than half of
the developmental projects and schemes from the previous budget are
pending.

Speaking to
The Hindu
on the eve of the budget presentation, Mr. Abdul Latheef said the thrust
of the budget for 2013-14 will be on service delivery improvement and
development of infrastructural facilities.

Focus

“The
focus of the budget this year, as always, will be on the traditional
functions and basic responsibilities of the local bodies, which include
providing satisfactory service and basic infrastructure. e-governance
projects will be the major agenda under service delivery improvement
projects,” said the Deputy Mayor.

He said the
Corporation was able to complete many long-pending projects such as the
Lalithakala Akademi art gallery successfully during the previous
financial year. “Also, many welfare schemes that were not mentioned in
the budget were completed, which created more pressure on the
allocations,” he said.

‘Extra burden’

Mr.
Latheef said the shifting of more responsibilities to the local bodies
had also created extra burden on the budgetary allocations. “Earlier, we
had to bear only the material costs of the project. Now, labour costs
have been added to that,” he said.

The chairman of
the standing committee on Public Works M. Mohanan said one of the major
projects would be the automatic street-lighting system in the entire
city, which was expected to provide significant savings in energy.

“Along
with the implementation of the automatic system, metering of
streetlights will also be implemented. The Corporation is planning to
create more open grounds and is considering maintenance work on the
existing ones. Another area of focus will be the creation of more
parking lots. New comfort stations will also be constructed. Most of the
city roads will come under the infrastructure improvement projects,”
Mr. Mohanan said.

Leader of the Opposition M.T. Padma
said that since most of the promises from the previous year had
remained unfulfilled, the opposition did not have much expectation from
this year’s budget.

“Most of the projects under all
the heads are pending. Most of the basic needs of the public, including
maintenance projects concerning water and electricity supply, have not
been completed. The contractors for electricity works are yet to be
given the payment for the projects completed in the previous years. So,
even if new projects are planned without paying the outstanding amounts,
they will not be taken up,” Ms. Padma said.